Champions

Dave Thomas

Description

Champions is the story of Burnley's Championship title win of season 2015/16. In the world of the big city football clubs, Burnley remains the club from the small town that continues to defy the odds through its good management and careful budgeting. This is the third promotion to the Premier League in just seven years. It was a season that began tentatively, after relegation. Three key players had been sold, and the first month produced nothing too special. Two key additions were made, as Andre Gray was brought in from Brentford for a club-record fee and Joey Barton, to the surprise of most in Burnley. Gray's goals and Barton's leadership became the foundation for the promotion that followed. As ever, in the background, Sean Dyche's man-management and motivational powers provided the bedrock of the success that came in the final week of the season, as a three-horse race went right to the wire.

Sujets

• Inglaterra
• England

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 19 août 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785312472
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2016
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Dave Thomas, 2016
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 978-1-78531-227-4
eBook ISBN978-1-78531-247-2
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Contents
FOREWORD by Mike Garlick, chairman of Burnley Football Club
INTRODUCTION
AUGUST
Somebody has to go to Morecambe, the friendlies and Burnley 2 Bradford City 0
Kerching go the Elland Road tills, Leeds United 1 Burnley 1
Remembering Dick Emery, Port Vale 1 Burnley 0 (League Cup), Burnley 2 Birmingham 2
I thought it was Charlie Cairoli, Ipswich 2 Burnley 0, Burnley 1 Brentford 0
Ang on, it s Brian not Joey, Bristol City 1 Burnley 2
SEPTEMBER
Vossengate, a Mickey Spillane mystery
It s a Grayt day, Burnley 3 Sheffield Wednesday 1
Sojourn in Kalkan, Burnley 2 MK Dons 1, Derby 0 Burnley 0, Burnley 1 Reading 2, Rotherham 1 Burnley 2
OCTOBER
Stumps, Runs and Rock and Roll
It s the People s Game, Burnley 2 Bolton Wanderers 0, Nottingham Forest 1 Burnley 1
You can t take it with you, Blackburn Rovers 0 Burnley 1, Burnley 2 Huddersfield Town 1
NOVEMBER
Two shades of Gray and a Matt finish, Burnley 3 Fulham 1
We need a new groundsman Roy, Wolves 0 Burnley 0
You got bullets we got champagne, Burnley 1 Brighton 1
Georgie Georgie, Cardiff City 2 Burnley 2
DECEMBER
My granny called it faffing, Burnley 0 Preston North End 2
Game schedule frameworks rule OK, Queens Park Rangers 0 Burnley 0
All smiles on mascot day, Middlesbrough 1 Burnley 0, Burnley 4 Charlton Athletic 0
Boxing Day washout, Hull City 3 Burnley 0, Burnley 4 Bristol City 0
JANUARY
A game of trench warfare, Burnley 0 Ipswich Town 0
In praise of the humble mince pie, Middlesbrough 1 Burnley 2 (FA Cup), MK Dons 0 Burnley 5
We don t need your money, Brentford 1 Burnley 3
Oh wadda night sang Franki Valli, Burnley 4 Derby County 1
Remembering Ray Pointer, Arsenal 2 Burnley 1 (FA Cup)
FEBRUARY
Thank you to Frank Teasdale, Sheffield Wednesday 1 Burnley 1
Even the foulest days can be OK, Burnley 1 Hull City 0
A spot of bother, Reading 0 Burnley 0
Ugly last week this week gritty, Burnley 2 Rotherham 0, Burnley 1 Nottingham Forest 0
Roy gets a new wheelbarrow, Bolton Wanderers 1 Burnley 2
MARCH
That was the week that was, Burnley 1 Blackburn Rovers 0 Blackburn Rivalry
Brown bin day so it must be spring, Fulham 2 Burnley 3, Huddersfield Town 1 Burnley 3
In the land of the Weavers, Burnley 1 Wolves 1
APRIL
Nowt wrong with shoddy, Brighton 2 Burnley 2
Remembering 87, Burnley 0 Cardiff City 0
Strong chins and gaviscon essential, Burnley 1 Leeds United 0, Birmingham 1 Burnley 2
A night to remember, Burnley 1 Middlesbrough 1
Tesco ham is different class, Preston North End 0 Burnley 1
MAY
Never mind the lumps and bruises, Middlesbrough 0 Ipswich Town 0, Charlton 1 Brighton 3, Tom Heaton interview
Goin up, goin up, goin up, Birmingham 2 Middlesbrough 2, Brighton 1 Derby County 1, Burnley 1 Queens Park Rangers 0
The press remembers Sean Dyche
An inflatable triumph, Charlton Athletic 0 Burnley 3
Looking back
FINALE BY TIM QUELCH
Photographs
CHAMPIONS - THE CAST
THE PLAYERS:
Tom Heaton, Matthew Lowton, Michael Duff, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, Andre Gray, Dean Marney, Sam Vokes, Jelle Vossen, Michael Kightly, Joey Barton, David Jones, Matthew Taylor, Marvin Sordell, Lloyd Dyer, Paul Robinson, Rouwen Hennings, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Fredrik Ulvestad, George Boyd, Matthew Gilks, Stephen Ward, Chris Long, James Tarkowski, Tendayi Darikwa, Ashley Barnes, Scott Arfield.
THE MANAGER and BACKROOM STAFF:
Manager Sean Dyche, assistant manager Ian Woan, first-team coach Tony Loughlan, goalkeeping coach Billy Mercer, head physiotherapist Allie Beattie, head of sports science Mark Howard.
THE DIRECTORS:
Chairman Mike Garlick, vice-chairman Barry Kilby, John Banaszkiewicz, Clive Holt, Brian Nelson, Terry Crabb, Brendan Flood.
TWO PLAYERS WHO SADLY PASSED AWAY:
Ray Pointer, the Blonde Bombshell and centre-forward in the great team that won the title in 1959/60; Ian Britton who will be forever remembered for the goal he scored in the Orient game.
NOT FORGETTING:
Frank Teasdale, chairman of the club during its most difficult years and who also passed away.
Foreword by chairman Mike Garlick
I am so proud.
I am just so proud to be the chairman of Burnley Football Club. Since the 1950s I have been just the sixth person to hold this prestigious post and experience the elation of helping to run the football club.
Not just any football club: Burnley FC is at the centre of the community and has often been described as the heartbeat of the town; a town that over the years has seen some troubled times so that in its moments of triumph the club has been able to provide a real boost to the community s morale. The club was founded in 1882 and since then has provided a strand that has woven itself into the town s history.
The club s history is a proud one, rich and varied, as the walls of the boardroom and all the other rooms will testify. Our huge glass display cabinets are filled with the souvenirs and memorabilia that testify to that history and the club s achievements. Walking through these rooms and along the corridors provides a football history lesson.
We have now had three promotions to the Premier League in the space of just seven years. Each one has been so very different in its nature. The first was with Owen Coyle and was earned the hard way via the play-offs and the memorable Wembley final. The second with Sean Dyche was a real football fairytale, so unexpected, almost cavalier and romantic. The third was this most recent one, again with Sean Dyche, who described it as different, businesslike, with more planning and re-modelling after the sale of three key players.
This third one is different for another reason, and this is financial. Our debts are paid and the new rewards of being in the Premier League are the greatest ever; they are very much ours to do with as we choose. It bodes so well for the future. We have a pound or two more in our pockets this time. The jar on the mantelpiece that we have jested about in the past can be put into one of the display cabinets perhaps. But the stuffed cat that lives on a window ledge in the boardroom can stay, curled up in its comfortable position, a reminder to us all of our homely roots and where we came from.
All of us bar one, on the board, are local men and even the one who is not, has lived in the town for decades and has been a director for nigh on 30 years. In this respect it is a unique boardroom and there are real Burnley accents around the table and none of us by the way owns a helicopter. Our feet remain on the ground and are rooted in reality and common sense and a feeling of duty that it is our job to find solidity, security and stability.
We smile when we hear our club described as a proper football club for we know that there are so many clubs envious of our situation. We are seen to be a well-run club that doesn t take risks, that secures the future and builds on firm foundations.
Way back in 1985/86, the finances were so precarious that by the end of the season the club was close to folding. The prospect was so real that extra programmes were printed so that souvenirs would be available at the final home game of the season. It survived by the skin of its teeth. The following campaign, 1986/87, was the Orient Season when the team had to win its final game of the season to stay in the Football League. For a second consecutive year it was close to extinction. It seems inconceivable all these years later that a club once so powerful and successful in its golden years was so close to the edge of disaster just 30 years ago. The town was close to losing its club.
By 1987 I was living in London so tended to attend more away matches than home, but I guess the 1986/87 season was just the culmination of several years of decline beginning in the late 60s and accelerating in the late 70s and then the mid-80s. To be fair to the owners of the club at that time, our situation was not radically different than any other Lancashire club s - we d all fallen on hard times - but given our strength in the 50s and 60s we d just fallen from a greater height, so the impact was felt harder.
I have to confess I was so nervous about the Orient game. I decided that I couldn t stand the tension and didn t make the trek from London, which in hindsight of course was the wrong thing to do.
Who would have thought then that we would be where we are now; certainly not those hardy souls that stood in rain and wind on desolate nights when crowds were less than 2,000 and there were games against Darlington, Aldershot and Maidstone. The journey has taken us a long, long way from the days when the club was so short of money that groundsman Roy Oldfield had to collect the soil from the mole hills at Gawthorpe in his wheelbarrow to use as filler and for levelling the goalmouths.
In the early 80s until 1986 I was at uni in Bradford and attended regular matches (it was nice having both Bradford and then Halifax Town as my nearest away games) at home and away - I think everyone could see there was still a great deal of passion in Burnley for the club but we were li